“One death is a tragedy,” according to Stalin, “but a million deaths is a statistic.” This lengthy but gripping work of oral history restores the humanity to Soviet Russia's murdered masses, piecing together the fear-filled reality of daily life under Stalinism. Orlando Figes has deftly combined hundreds of personal testimonies to present a revealing and harrowing sample of the 25m or so victims whose “spoiled biographies” - a creepy euphemism - marked them as enemies of the regime. Filled with appalling and often immensely moving stories, The Whisperers has more than enough acute detail to prevent reader numbness setting in. A man sits up in bed every night waiting for the sound of a car; a woman waits 15 years for a husband who eventually turns out to have been shot the night he was taken away; another hikes 3,000km with two small children, pulling her gold teeth out en route to use as currency. Others remember the sense of belonging that Stalinism gave, and their confusion and even guilt at finding themselves on the wrong side of it. This is a great haunting monument of a book. It's not just about survival, though that's central: it's also about the frankly unredeemed ruin and waste of life.

The Whisperers by Orlando Figes
Penguin £10.99

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